Retch or wretch?
retch is a verb meaning “To make or experience an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain or spasm, as…”; wretch is a noun meaning “An unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person”. Use retch as a verb and wretch as a noun (retch is also a noun: “An unsuccessful effort to vomit”). They sound the same (/ɹɛt͡ʃ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) wretch is about 6.2 times as common as retch.
What is the difference between retch and wretch?
| retch | wretch | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | noun |
| Meaning | To make or experience an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain or spasm, as if to vomit; to gag or nearly vomit To vomit; to make or experience a successful effort to vomit An unsuccessful effort to vomit | An unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person An unpleasant, annoying, worthless, or despicable person |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | retches, retching, retched | wretches |
| Pronunciation | /ɹɛt͡ʃ/ | /ɹɛt͡ʃ/ |
| In writing | about once in every 9 million words | about once in every 1 million words |
Sources: retch and wretch in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of retch and wretch
retch
- 1
To make or experience an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain or spasm, as if to vomit; to gag or nearly vomit
- 2
An unsuccessful effort to vomit
- 3
Alternative form of reach
- 4
To vomit; to make or experience a successful effort to vomit
wretch
- 1
An unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person
- 2
An unpleasant, annoying, worthless, or despicable person
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, retch or wretch?
retch appears about once in every 9 million words; wretch about once in every 1 million words.
retch about once in every 9 million wordswretch about once in every 1 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search retch vs wretch?
“retch vs wretch” is searched about 90 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“wretch vs retch”, “retch or wretch”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.